Bank of America: Financial Loser

NEW YORK ( TheStreet) -- Stock movement in the financial sector on Friday provided clear evidence of the winners and losers from a week of fourth-quarter earnings from most of the big banks.

Bank of America ( BAC), the last of the banking titans to report, was losing 1.3% in recent trading at $14.36, after reporting an unexpected $2 billion loss . Mortgage settlements, litigation and impairment charges wiped out what would have been a profitable quarter otherwise - despite weak trading results - showing just how problematic BofA's consumer business has become.

>>>Read More: Mortgage Woes Weigh on Bank of America

Unexpected changes in interest rates last quarter was an impediment to all of the big investment banks' trading profits. Citigroup ( C) showed the first signs of trading weakness on Tuesday, when its fourth-quarter profit came in at just half of what Wall Street had been expecting. Goldman Sachs ( GS) and Morgan Stanley ( MS) followed up with similar weakness in fixed-income trading revenue, leading to a general bearishness on banks, despite the fact that both firms beat expectations.

This week's earnings news represented a reversal from JPMorgan Chase's ( JPM) last Friday. The bank kicked off the earnings season with a strong quarterly report - beating profit expectations by 47% - without showing any signs of an unexpected trading slowdown. JPMorgan's trading results were resilient enough to prompt Goldman CFO to offer accolades: "I can't explain JPMorgan," he told the Financial Times. "All I can say is 'congratulations.'"

Shares of Goldman and Citi tumbled during the week, losing 5.3% and 6.3%, respectively, through Thursday's close. By Friday afternoon, though, the bearishness had quieted down, with Goldman up 0.5% at $166.45 and Citi up 2% at $4.89 in recent trading.

>>>Read More: Reinventing Goldman Sachs

Morgan Stanley, whose results were seen positively on Wall Street, was up 3.4% at $30.01. The stock opened the week trading below $29. Similarly, Wells Fargo was up 2.2% at $32.60.

Elsewhere in the sector, big regionals were soaring even higher on signs of increasing improvements in their credit books. SunTrust Banks ( STI) was up 5.9% in recent trading at $29.51, with BB&T ( BBT) up 4.5% at $28.29, Capital One ( COF) up 4.2% at $49.24 and KeyCorp ( KEY) up 3.9% at $8.73. All three banks reported increased earnings, with SunTrust citing better asset quality , BB&T showing lower mortgage losses and Capital One's credit card book mending losses.

One loser in the financial sector was American International Group ( AIG) stock, which was in the second day of trading detached from a warrant dividend. Its shares were losing 2.7% at $42.03 in recent action.

A new study by researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York suggests that bondholders still don't believe the government would ever let the firms collapse into bankruptcy -- after a decade of efforts by regulators to convince them otherwise. But at least one analyst who tracks big Wall Street firms' bonds says there may be an even bigger problem: Investors, pressured by the need to generate income, simply don't care whether the banks are too big to fail -- one way or the other.

Goldman Sachs Group Co-President and former CFO Harvey Schwartz will retire April 20, the company said Monday in a press release. The announcement came just days after the Wall Street Journal reported that CEO Lloyd Blankfein is preparing to step down, possibly later this year.